Gakuen Alice Fairytales
by Window.Of.Dreams
Summary: The age old fairytales of princesses and faraway princes with witches and warlocks, curses and poisoned apples and dragons and castles. But, with a twist, they all have Gakuen Alice characters so they won't exactly be the stories you remember for can you really imagine Natsume as a Prince or Mikan in the role of a graceful princess? Didn't thinks so. AU.


**This…is really random. But the idea came to me all of a sudden and I REALLY wanted to try it. It just seemed fun to do, and I want to see how it goes.**

**So this is how I want to do it: I want to write random fairytales (It can be from anywhere, Grimm Brothers, Warner Bros, Disney, etc.) but twist them with Gakuen Alice characters, so that their personalities and circumstances are woven into the fairytales we all loved as children (well, I still love them.) **

**And I would love it if you guys gave me suggestions as well; I know you have brilliant ideas.**

**Fairytales (that come to mind right now.):**

**~Cinderella, Pinocchio, Beauty and the Beast, Mulan, Tarzan, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood. (Ehh…I can't think of any others…)**

**Couples/Main Characters:**

**~NatsumeXMikan (Duh.), RukaXHotaru, SumireXKoko, YukaXIzumi (or Narumi and Shiki.) And of course they don't have to be cannon since not all fairytales are about romance.**

**Anyway, this is the one that I came up with…**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Gakuen Alice, that honor belongs to Tachibana. I don't own any of the fairytales either and well…I don't really know who wrote the original story first but I'm using Disney's version in this drabble.**

**~;~**

_**Beauty and the Beast**_

_**NatsumeXMikan**_

_"Certain as the sun rising in the East _

_Tale as old as time, song as old as rhyme  
Beauty and the Beast"_

_~Beauty and the Beast; Disney_

Once upon a time, in a faraway land, a young prince lived in a shining castle. Although he had everything his heart desired, the prince was rude, arrogant and unkind to everyone. But then, one winter's night, a man with a white mask concealing half his face came to the castle and offered him a single match to light fire in return for shelter from the bitter cold. Annoyed for being disturbed so late at night, the prince sneered at the gift and turned the masked man away. But the man warned him not to be so easily angered and rude for unkindness rots the heart and those without compassion and benevolence can never truly be happy and learn to love another. And when the heartless prince dismissed him again, the man took off his mask to reveal a cold and beautiful face. He touched the castle wall and the vine of roses woven around the door, the young prince had watched in disbelief as the wall dented and burned at the man's touch and the beautiful red roses withered and died. The prince tried to apologize in fear of the powerful man, but it was too late, for the masked being had seen that there was no kindness or humility in the young prince's heart. As punishment, he put a mask as permanent as a second skin on the arrogant boy's face. It was a mask in the face of a black cat and it hid the beautiful prince's face so that he was as ugly from the outside as he was from the inside. And before the man walked away into the cold bitter night, he placed a powerful spell upon the castle and all who lived in it. Ashamed of his ugly countenance, the cat faced boy concealed himself inside his castle with a magic stone as his only window to the outside world. The match that the masked man had offered had lit a bright fire in a goblet inside the prince's room for it was truly an enchanted blaze, which would burn only until his 18th year. If he could learn to be selfless and kind enough to love another, and earn her love in return by the time the flame burned out then the spell would be broken. If not, he would be doomed to remain with an animalistic face for all time. As the years passed, the prince fell into despair and lost all hope. For who could ever learn to love a face like his?

**~;~**

"Back again, Mikan? You're my most dedicated customer yet." The old man chuckles as he gives the white square box of sweets to a girl with long brown hair braided back.

She grins at him, pushing her long bangs back from her eyes, "I can't help it. My day is just not complete without fluff puffs." She hugs the box to her chest and spins around under the open sky, her green dress skirt flowing prettily.

The old man laughs heartily, "You're adorable. Most girls try to hide that they have an appetite, but then you never were like other girls." He squats down and retrieves a blue box with a red ribbon from the bottom of his stall; he turns back to the girl and hands it to her, "here, I made a cake using fluff puffs and butter cream; share them with your grandfather."

Mikan's eyes widen but she shakes her head and refuses firmly, "No no, I can't do that!"

The man grins and pushes the prettily wrapped box in her hands, "Of course you can. It's my gift to you."

The girl bites her lip, she wanted the delicacy but she didn't know if it was right to accept but when the old man starts pushing her away from the stall saying, "It's a weekend and I was suppose to close half an hour ago, go now and eat to your delight." He tells her.

Mikan smiles happily and waves goodbye at the shopkeeper, _oh well, if he insists_.

She giggles and skips through the town hugging the boxes to her; after she finishes her chores for the day she's going to share them with her grandfather for desert. As she makes her way through the small town with a spring in her step, heads turn in her direction and greetings come from right and left. From the butcher shop, Akira Tonouchi greets her brightly, "Hey Mikan, you look especially beautiful this morning." He smiles flirtatiously her way.

Mikan grins and waves back, "Thank you!"

When she passes by the blacksmith, Tsubasa acknowledges her smiling brilliantly while he wipes sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand, "And how is the most beautiful girl in town doing this fine morning?"

Mikan grins at him but doesn't stop walking and instead walks backwards to look at him as she talks. Still hugging the box she grins hugely at him, "Wait till I tell your fiancé what you said." She yells walking rearward.

Tsubasa laughs, "Misaki's not the jealous type. And I only said what's true!" He yells the last part and Mikan smiles wryly and shakes her head. She turns around to walk straight and just as she does, her face collides with a hard chest.

Strong arms grab her shoulders and steady her. Mikan rubs her nose and steps back from the arms that encased her, she looks up into black eyes and smiles with effort, "Good Morning Kunoji." She greets, her enthusiasm lessened when she recognizes the man with dark hair and equally dark eyes.

He smiles down at her and she tries to ignore the shiver that goes down her spine, "Good Morning to you too. How are you doing this beautiful morning?" He asks charmingly.

Mikan smiles and walks away breezily, "I'm good, just in a hurry; I'll see you later." She says and starts walking quickly away with stiff shoulders.

But the dark haired man smoothly blocks her path; he takes the white box from her swiftly, "What's this?" He asks examining the box as he turns it around in his hands.

Mikan presses her lips together, "Fluff Puffs, I got it from the baker this morning. You can have one if you like." She offers generously.

The man makes a face and hands it back to her, "No thank you. You shouldn't eat that stuff; a lady needs to look after her weight." He advises, smiling attractively.

Mikan bites her cheek, people found her eating habits repulsive, ladies were suppose to starve themselves according to society. Unfortunately the same men who believed that never saw the end result of what happens when you lock a woman with dozens of pastries and no one to judge her. Game, match, set. And empty dishes.

She looks up at Kunoji and gives him a fleeting smile as she sidesteps him, "Thank you for the advice." She tells him politely and walks away to the little cottage by the lake.

She steps inside through the wooden door and walks straight to the kitchen, setting down both boxes side by side. She smiles down at them once before she turns and grabs the tea pot over the stove. She pours two cups, grabs oatmeal cookies from the jar and puts it all on a yellow tray. She makes her way out the kitchen door to the back garden where she knew her grandfather would be.

Sure enough the old man stood stiffly, his cane making a hole in the soft ground as her glared at the beautiful red roses. Mikan smiles a little and walks towards the elder, "You'll burn the flowers to a crisp if you glare at them like that." She says handing him the tea and putting the tray by the flower pot.

Her grandfather turns to her with a small smile, and sips his tea. They stand in silence for a moment as they gaze at the beautiful flowers and drink their lotus tea. The old man breaks the silence by exhaling deeply, he turns to his granddaughter with sad eyes, "It didn't work. The search party got lost in a wild forest."

Mikan takes a huge gulp of her tea to hide her distressed expression at the news; she clears her throat and smiles a bit sadly at the old man, "That's the third one you sent, grandfather. We should stop. We're running low on expenses because of the money you use to hire these people." She reasons with him.

The elder Sakura turns to her sharply, "No. We can't do that when we're this close, we can't stop now." He tells her firmly.

Mikan looks away; she didn't want to argue with her grandfather, especially not about this, he was stubborn when it came to such matters. She couldn't help mutter softly, "You're not any closer then you were three years ago when you started."

She really shouldn't have said that, she looked up at the old man to apologize but stopped cold when she met hard eyes. "Your mother's alive." He tells her unyieldingly.

"You say that and I believe you each time, but do you have any idea how much it hurts when I find out that another attempt failed." Mikan didn't want to fight on this, they always argued over this and she regretted it every time. She knew her grandfather was old and she was giving him a hard time right now but she couldn't control her tongue from pouring out her feelings.

The older Sakura's face turns grave, "She's your mother. Don't you want this? The least you can do is have hope for this operation."

Mikan throws her hands up in exasperation, "I do! Each and every time, grandfather! I always think maybe today they'll find the mother who abandoned me, who against all odds is living and breathing. And then each time I'm proved wrong, it hurts."

Tears threatened to break through so like a petulant child she stomped away. She couldn't help it, even if it was hope that had kept her sane all this time, it was also the reason she was going insane little by little now.

Mikan walks out of the cottage angrily, she didn't want to feel this way and she was starting to feel ashamed of how she reacted.

_Stupid anger management problems. _Her fury was always like this, it came like a tornado and left nothing but broken pieces in its wake. And just like a tornado it left as quickly as it came, leaving her feeling ashamed and humiliated for lashing out.

She walked to the town square and made her way to the gargoyle fountain in the middle; she sat on the thick bricks that surrounded the spring with a huff, crossing her arms across her chest. After a few moments of angrily staring up at the beautiful blue sky she was starting to calm down and the telltale signs of guilt were settling into her stomach.

Sighing deeply Mikan turns around, looking at the gargoyles with water spraying out of their mouth. They had a large snout and small angry eyes; if it wasn't so obvious that the creatures were made out of stone, Mikan was sure she would be having nightmares tonight. The gargoyle statue closest to her had a pigeon sitting on him pecking angrily at the statue's head.

Mikan smiles wryly at the scene. She regards the pigeon with amusement, "Are you angry too?"

The pigeon continues pecking the stone statue ignoring the girl's question but Mikan doesn't seem to mind, she just smiles at the bird, "You shouldn't take it out on the stone, it didn't do anything wrong." She looks over at the gargoyle head, "It's not his fault it has an ugly appearance."

She sighs deeply and turns to the spring water lying smoothly inside the white fountain. She stares at the clear fluid and sweeps her hand in it to make ripples in the water. She wasn't sure if her next words were for the pigeon or herself, "Don't take your rage out on him, he didn't mean any harm." The rippled water blurs her reflection; Mikan sighs wistfully and retracts her now wet hand and the water surface returns to its original turgid and smooth form, this time revealing the reflection of a face other then own.

Mikan turns around to see Kunoji's handsomely smiling down at her. She forces a smile of her own and starts to get off the bricks on the fountain.

"You know people might think you're mad for talking to yourself." He tells her with a pleasant smile but his eyes looked ablaze.

Mikan brushes her dress with the back of her hands as she stands, "Do you think I'm crazy then?" She asks him with a tight smile, feeling prickly by his intense gaze. She always felt uncomfortable around Kunoji, sure he was handsome and pleasant to talk to and perhaps he was one of the best looking bachelors in town but something about him was so off and it gave Mikan a cold feeling whenever she talked to him.

He grins, "I do. I think you're a crazy and beautiful girl. It helps that you're also the most striking woman in town."

Mikan blushes and shifts uncomfortably, "Thank you." she replies a bit awkwardly.

She turns to leave but the dark man starts talking to her again and she bites down an exasperated sigh as she spins around to face him when he speaks, "I see you were looking at gargoyles." He says gesturing at the stone statues on the fountain.

"Yeah, they look quite exotic."

Kunoji snorts, "Exotic? More like hideous."

He looks at them in distaste and then faces her with cold eyes, "According to legend these mythical creatures were ruthless; they were ugly monsters that had the power to scorch a human being from a mile radius because of their fire breath. People tried killing them but failed, eventually they burned their bodies to a crisp, but their necks and heads wouldn't burn. They could withstand the fire because that's where they blew their own fire from, so the pagans took their dead heads and when they built monuments or castles, they decorated the outside with a statue of them to ward off evil. They believed good attracted evil and evil repelled evil so they used them as protectors."

The man grins, "Now they're just ugly creatures used to keep crows and other annoying fiends away."

Mikan blinks up at the stone gargoyle looking at it in a new light. She finds it sad that the creatures were killed because they had the potential to be threats. They were treated so cruelly because they had power and simply because their appearance was ugly. Mikan looks back at the fountain in gloom but then her eye catches the same pigeon pecking angrily at the statue.

She looks over at Kunoji with soft eyes, "I guess that didn't include pigeons."

The man looks at her in surprise, "What?"

Mikan points to the bird on the fountain, "They don't scare pigeons away because of how they look."

She grins happily at the fountain. Kunoji blinks at the girl's rather extreme changes in expression, "Does it make you that happy?" He asks with amusement.

Mikan shrugs but nods in glee. She gives him a final smile, "Well, I'll be going." She informs him and starts to walk away.

"Mikan, wait," Kunoji calls after her.

She halts in her footsteps and twirls around to look at him in confusion. He doesn't hesitate at all as he walks up to her and takes her by the hand guiding her to the very center of the street.

People stop what they were doing to look at the two most good looking people in town impede traffic.

Mikan blushes from the attention but something about the satisfactory smile and the confident stance in Kunoji's shoulders gives her the feeling that he likes the attention.

He squeezes her hand once before he lets go and takes a step back. He takes a deep breath and then falls to one knee, and grabs her hand again, he smiles up at her as he asks, "Mikan Sakura, will you marry me?" He takes out a gold ring from his left pocket and brings it up to show her.

Mikan despite the loud rhythm of her heartbeat hears collective gasps from around her as everyone seems to hold their breath to hear her answer.

She looks into Kunoji's eyes in panic and placid confusion. She couldn't deny his proposal without looking terrible and embarrassing him in front of everyone but she didn't want to accept either for the sake of appearances because well, she didn't love him and even if he was rich and kind, Mikan didn't want to marry for money and prestige. She wanted to marry for love, like her parents.

She racked her brain for an excuse to diverge him. She thought of her angry grandfather waiting at home for her and suddenly she had not just a believable excuse but also a half truth. She looks down at the handsome man's face and smiles politely as she extracts her hand from his grip, "I'm touched that you asked me for such an honorable role but I can't leave my grandfather. He's old and he gets sick easily and I have to take care of him." She tells him forcing a sad look to her face.

Kunoji was shocked stiff at her answer and Mikan realized belatedly that he probably wasn't expecting anything but a 'yes'. When he starts rising to his feet; Mikan takes the chance to flee home.

**~;~**

"I've found a lead. Do you want me to detach a search party to trace it?" A young man dressed in a cream colored shirt and brown pants asked the elder Sakura standing outside in the rose garden.

Mikan's grandfather shook his head, "No. I can't afford any more of that. I'll go by myself. Can you draw me a map of the route?" He asked the boy.

He nodded but looked at him in worry, "But sir, it could be dangerous and it's a long way from here."

The old man shook his head, "I'm familiar with much of the path since I led the search parties before so just draw me a basic map. I'll be fine." He reassures the young boy and pats his shoulder before walking into the house.

The man sighs as he walks into his room. He puts his wooden cane by the door and sits down at his desk to write a letter for his granddaughter.

He knew she was right about being tight on money, he had started acting rashly the past few months which made their expenses go far too high. He felt guilty as he wrote the letter, she was mad at him and he knew he was to blame for he had been too unreasonable but he was at a loss as well. He wanted her to have a mother in her life, he was old and didn't have too many years left so he knew that he couldn't take care of her forever. He also knew there was a large possibility that his daughter was dead for all the parties that went looking for her never returned so what were the chance she remained unharmed all these years? But he couldn't bring himself to truly believe it. He would have to see his daughter's lifeless body with his own eyes to truly believe that she was no longer in this world anymore.

Until then, he would have to keep looking. And now that times were desperate, he had to take matters into his own hands.

His only regret was that he wouldn't get to apologize to his granddaughter or say a proper goodbye to her.

He sighed as he signed his letter. He picked it up and walked into the kitchen. As he looked around for a place to display his letter something bright caught his eye and he turned to see two boxes on the counter, a white one and a blue one. He walked over to them and placed the letter by them, he knew the boxes would catch her eye and she wouldn't miss his letter.

He had wanted to give a farewell but Mikan had returned in the late afternoon today and gone straight to bed after making his dinner. He had guessed she was still angry with him. He just hoped she wouldn't stay mad too long and come to forgive him soon.

**A/N: Oww my fingers hurt. I was not planning on making this two chapters but I guess it'll have to be since my hand has decided to cramp and I really wanted to post this today. Let me know your thoughts, good and bad, I think I can handle the evil ones too. And those of you in the US, I hope you had a happy thanksgiving with your family! :D**


End file.
